Infinity: Different Flavors for Different Folks (Faction Overviews)

by Pride of Rodina ·
Published February 24, 2016
· Updated February 26, 2016

The only way to carry your dice.

You may have perused over my last article introducing Infinity, so this week we’ll take a deeper look into the game by analyzing the different factions on the table (note, I mean specifically the different factions, we’ll leave sectorials for later). First, a disclaimer, all the factions in Infinity are very well rounded and they can serve multiple roles. Just because I say a faction is good at something, doesn’t mean that’s all it’s good at. It just means that’s what I’ve heard, seen or read as their main specialty, but you can play them however you want! Best way to pick a faction is to go by aesthetics and fluff, then gameplay, when it comes to Infinity

PanOceania (Shoot stuff dead or cut it with Space Knights)

Take everyone from the great and vast Oceanic region and you get PanO! The wealthiest and debatably most powerful of the factions PanOceania is revving to show the human sphere they mean business. This faction capitalizes on its superb equipment compared to the rest of the factions. They are the more regimented, best shots, and best equipped human faction. On top of that they have some really wonderful T.A.G.s and Heavy Infantry.

Most troops have a niche and they are the top in their class for that niche

Weaknesses

Overall low Willpower (WIP)

No warbands (WB)

Troops are very niche and rarely have overlap

Lack of skills on troops (what they lack in skills, they make up for in equipment)

Iconic Troops

Aquila Guard

Cutter

Nisse

Auxilia

Knights

Yu Jing (Space Asia)

The Chinese empire is reborn and they eventually envelope most of the Asian nations on Earth into one power called Yu Jing; however the Chinese have no love for their Japanese brothers after all of those years of ill treatment between the two. This faction packs some of the best and most efficient Heavy Infantry, well-rounded troops, a lot of wonderful close combat units, great REMs (robots) and even REMs that are heavy infantry! Also, if you hate camo, then this is the faction for you. They hate camo too!

Strengths

Fantastic Heavy Infantry

A good variety of close combat units

Well-rounded troops

Ninjas!

Great at hunting out camo, debatably more than any other faction

Weaknesses

Most troops may cost more than equivalents from other factions

Almost always pay for things you may not use

Close combat is not always your friend (in fact, it rarely is)

Iconic Troops

Domaru

Hac Tao

Zuyong

Kuang Shi

Ninjas

Nomads (Anarchists and Dirty tricks everywhere)

When anarchy and cyberpunk mash up with the best security teams, hackers and engineers known to human kind you get the Nomads. Refusing to live under anyone’s rule, but their own, the Nomads took off in giant space-faring cities to live out their lives with the freedoms they longed for, but couldn’t find in any human settlements. This faction posses the best hackers, engineers, REMs and some of the most feared troops in all of Infinity (Intruder, Interventors, etc.). Biggest problem is they generally lack true offensive punch and rely on either using extremely dirty tricks or stacking modifiers to their benefits.

Strengths

Best hackers (Custodiers, Interventors, Zoe)

Some of the best engineers

Wide variety in troop types and profiles

Some of the best REMS and combat REMs (even a parachuting Forward Observer REM!)

Not that great in true offensive power (lack variety of ammo types and multiweapons)

Very reliant on modifiers to win firefights

Overall kind of slow (a lot more MI will be taken and used, no bikes)

PanO and Yu Jing outshine their tech and armor by quite a bit (compare HI and TAGs)

Iconic Troops

Intruder

Gecko

Interventors

Meteor Zond

Reverand Moiras

Haqqislam (Doctors ‘R’ Us)

Leaving behind Earth to create a haven for the New Islam that focused on humanitarian philosophies, this faction greatly enjoys their light infantry, bio-tech and doctors. What they lack in heavy infantry, TAGs, armor or wounds, they make up for with their greater access to weapon types, doctors (and types), higher faction WIP and by far some of the best light infantry in the whole game. Some troops are very niche (Azra’il, Lasiq, Govads), others are very diverse (Asawira, Al Hawwa, Muyibs) , while a few are the most efficient types (Barid, Gazi Muttawi’ah, Daylami) you can find in other factions as well as some of the cheapest troops in the game.

Stengths

Most troops are very diverse and come with kits for multiple jobs

Best doctors in the entire game

Overall faction-wide higher WIP

Some of the cheapest troops

By far some of the best light infantry in the entire game

Good weapon variety and access (exluding multi-weapons, but including viral weaponry)

Lots of Irregular troops (kind of hinders your order pools when you keep taking all of the good Irregular troops)

REMS are really lacking compared to every other faction (except Ariadna…those poor sobs)

Iconic Troops

Janissaries (especially the doctor)

Barid

Lasiq

Al Hawwa

Kum Riders

Ariadna (Dirty Savages)

Earth sent a colony ship of French, Scots/English, Americans and Russians out to colonize a distant planet. Needless to say it was a bad idea and terrible things happened. The distant relatives of those lost and stranded on the foreign planet (Dawn) survive to this day. They are by far the lowest tech faction in the game, relying on guerrilla tactics, camo and their guns to get the job done. You thought Haqq seemed fragile, well, these guys are even more fragile, cheaper overall and they lack the awesome doctors that Haqq has; however they make up for this by being the strongest and the most cunning. Lots of smoke, camo, a crap ton of gun types (including armor-piercing) and werewolves to even the playing field.

Strengths

So much camo, I feel sorry for the other factions, with decoys to boot

Cheapest faction overall, points wise (cheapest is 5 and most expensive is 47 if you leave out the special character team), so lots of troops to send at the enemy!

A very large variety in weapon types and ammos (AP, T2, normal, shock)

So much smoke, it should be illegal

Good amount of unique and awesome special skills

Almost entirely unhackable!

Weaknesses

Crap REMs

No ‘true” Heavy Infantry

Extremely vulnerable to shock, viral, etc.

Poor hackers

Not very good friends with MSV2+, kind of ruins your whole shtick

Iconic Troops

Spetsnaz

Foxtrot

Mavericks

Werewolves (three different units of them, actually)

Caterans

Combined Army (Spooky Aliens, Best of the Best)

The great alien presence from beyond known space. Their sole desire is to conquer and control in hopes of creating an enlightened society. With vast robot armies, their enslaved alien races and sometimes mind controlled humans, the Combined Army is ready to subjugate into passivism. This army is the elite of the elite and more expensive on average than the other factions, but they make up for it with their better abilities to get the mission done and make sure you’re roasted.

Stengths

Plasma weapons, ‘nough said

Almost a faction wide ability to ignore ‘loss of lieutenant’

Crazy strong troops, even their line troopers are above and beyond those of other factions

So many REMs which means so much supportware

Their own unique hacking abilities

Mind control

Weaknesses

So expensive compared to other factions. You will need to rely on your cheapest troops to get as much done as you like

A whole lot of hacking targets

Very few doctors and engineers (only one actually and it’s both)

Iconic Troops

Avatar

Speculo Killer

Med-Tech (aka Dr. Worm)

Umbra

Sogarat

A.L.E.P.H. (Cyborgs heroes unite!)

The A.I. humanity created to protect themselves, or does ALEPH have its own agendas? This faction loves stacking up special skills and abilities making it really hard to hit them (so much ODD and TO camo!) with a few mirrored counterparts to Combined Army. ALEPH is almost entirely different compared to the rest of the factions due to how it plays and the comfort bubble it gives its players. It’s easy to play, but hard to master.

Strengths

Plethora of special skills, equipment and abilities to keep your troops fighting, one of the hardest factions to win direct firefights with

A bunch of characters, you like heroes, we’ve got your heroes here

Fantastic spectrum of low cost to high cost troops, unlike CA who is either low or high

Debatably the second best close combat army

Good access to all specialist types, even doctors and engineers

Weaknesses

Another elite army, will almost always be outnumbered

A lot to learn initially to play them

Not a big fan of Greek heroes? Might want to pick something else then

Lack of ammo types, almost entirely just normal guns

Iconic Troops

Achilles

Myrmidons

Asura

Ajax

Nagas

Tohaa (We’re All Friends)

Another alien faction that came out of the void. Locked in combat with the Combined Army for years, this faction’s numbers are dwindling so they resort to making use of subjugated and mutated “lesser” lifeforms. Is Tohaa here to help or here to use humanity as their final tool and buffer between the CA. This faction specilizes in biological warfare (to the extent of hacking too!), using organisms to enhance themselves and their teams. They are also known as being the “buddy faction” (can form multiple teams of three models and have a lot of g:synch troops).

Strengths

Can always make link teams up to three and multiple teams

Biological hacking

Symbiant armor gives many of your troops cheap second wounds (larger margin of error compared to most factions)

Good variety of skills and equipment (sapper, super-jump, nanoscreen, etc.)

Almost entirely unhackable (their HI and TAG are the only exceptions)

Weaknesses

Very low variety in weapons and ammos

Extremely susceptible to fire (adios symbiant armor)

Low doctor and engineer count

Doctors and paramedics do very little for this faction

No mechanical contraptions

Iconic Troops

Rasail

Nikoul

Kosuil

Kerail

Sakiel

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Pride of Rodina

Kyle Randolph's the name and Infinity's the game! I've been playing wargames since 2006 and I've been playing Infinity since 2013. I started with Ariadna, only using Kazaks, but now I've expanded my collection to include more than 8 different armies.
Find my complete bio in the "About the Authors" section as well as a link to my personal blog, all about Infinity, for a double whammy of awesome!

4 Responses

Doctors and Paramedics do very little for Tohaa? With Symbiont Armour getting a +3 bonus to PH with MediKits (cancelling the normal -3 penalty), they are able to make better use of Paramedics than anyone else. There is nothing more annoying that killing the SymbioMate, removing the Symbiont Armour, finally killing the trooper (remember: immune to Shock), then next turn they get back up and into the fight. I face this all the time!

Do note that this article is a little outdated since HSN3 has came out now, but I do see your point; however, hear me out:
With Tohaa as my second faction and playing regularly against Tohaa players, I rarely see any of them (including myself) use Paramedics or Doctors/Engineers (don’t forget they have to be both to help symbiont-toting troops) because it’s really not worth it in Tohaa. Symbiobombs make for far better “paramedics” or “doctors” than the actual troops. Minus the fact, that when those troops lose their symbiont, they’re kind of worthless. ‘Naked’ Tohaa has worse stats, lose some cool gear, etc; all in all, bringing them up is a lose in efficiency, if you ask me. Why waste a couple of orders to gamble on bringing a subpar troop back, when you can focus on keeping fully ‘dressed’ Tohaa alive or wining by taking the objective?
Maybe it’s just different playstyles and I’m sure it’s effective, but I’ve yet to see it be effective. I’ve played against the 11th best player in the world (now 7th) and he had his list packed with paramedics…they were used for objectives or to bring back his Kameel Lt. The bombs were what he used to heal with and it works far better.

To be fair, the *only* Doctor is Doctor/Engineer, so that limitation would only come into play with Spec-Ops characters (which are not common in my experience).

I do not play Tohaa (Corregidor play), only against them (regularly). In our local meta, Parametics often bring back Symbiont Armour troops like Gao-Rael, Kosuil and Sakiel, as their equipment/weapons (or Engineer profile) are valuable, and they only lost some ARM. I can definitely see where you are coming from now, however. Compared to using a Doctor on, say, a Hac Tao, a Rasail would be a wasted Order.

Anytime! I always try to reply to every comment I get. Sometimes I forget or they get lost in a mountain of comments.

Indeed. Spec-Ops are pretty rare and you usually don’t see -just- a Doctor Spec-Ops in Tohaa because they’re pretty pointless. I do wonder if we’ll ever see a plain doctor option for them though….

See, I could respect bringing back Gao-Raels or Kosuils with Sakiel paramedics, if they were traveling together, and sometimes Sakiels, but as you pointed out, Rasails really aren’t worth bringing back up in many cases. Quite honestly the only time I really ever try to bring a troop back up is when I play Haqq, so I know I have a good chance and know those orders weren’t wasted. I rarely find it’s worth the investment. Glad you could understand where I’m coming from and my ramblings weren’t too incoherent (probably shouldn’t try replying to comments immediately after I wake up and don’t have my morning coffee, ha ha!).